What is I-O?

Industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology is the scientific
study of the workplace. Rigor and methods of psychology are
applied to issues of critical relevance to business,
including talent management, coaching, assessment,
selection, training, organizational development,
performance, and work-life balance.

Lori Foster Thompson is a professor of psychology at North Carolina State University, where she leads the IOTech4D lab devoted to research at the intersection of work, psychology, technology, and global development. Her scholarship focuses on how technology and industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology can together enrich and improve work carried out for, with, and by people in lower-income settings, for the purpose of addressing the most pressing economic, social, and environmental challenges facing our world today. Lori is a Fellow of the APA, APS, and SIOP. In 2010, she was appointed an EU Erasmus Mundus Scholar in Humanitarian Work Psychology. She serves as a SIOP representative to the United Nations and is a member of the United Nations Psychology Coalition’s Executive Committee and SIOP’s Executive Board. She holds a Ph.D. in I-O psychology from the University of South Florida.

Telma Viale is the Director of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Office for the United Nations in New York and Special Representative to the United Nations. Prior to that post, she served as: Director of the Human Resource Development Department at the ILO in Geneva; Chief of Human Resources Services of the International Training Centre of the ILO in Turin, Italy; Senior Human Resources Officer covering the Latin American region and the Arab States as well as the Employment and Social Protection sectors; Senior Policy Officer in Human Resources Services at the World Health Organization; and Head of Staffing in the Human Resources Department at the International Organization for Migration in Geneva. Telma has also held various administrative posts in the United Nations secretariat and the United Nations Development Programme and has undertaken field assignments in Mozambique and Afghanistan. She holds a M.A. degree in organizational psychology from Columbia University.